Christians And Their Funeral Rites For The Departed
Funeral rituals have a different significance for every faith belief system. For example, Christians hold a funeral service to honor the life of the deceased, where those attending the service will speak and share personal anecdotes about the deceased. Meanwhile, the funeral rituals for the Buddhist marks the transition of the deceased person’s life from this one to the next. Moreover, in the Buddhist tradition, those left behind are reminded about the impermanence of everything in this world.
Death is part of being human. Death is a part of the wheel of life. In death, a person departs and another is left behind. The religious affiliation that a person belongs to must help in doing a rite of relinquishing for those who are left behind. The funeral is the ritual that permits people to deal with their loved one’s passing away.
Christian funerals adhere to the rules of the Church. However, as there are over 200 different communities of Christians, there are many differences in the manner in which the funeral services are conducted by each community.
The first most important tradition in a Christian funeral is the wake, which is conducted before the real funeral service and where the deceased is watched the entire night and Biblical psalms are recited to pray for the departed soul. According to present day practices, this is the time where friends and family see the dead person for the last time and pay their heartfelt homage. The body is carefully preserved and placed either at the residence or inside a Church with only a specified number of visiting hours. In earlier times, the wake was succeeded by absolution, which involved absolving the deceased of all the sins he or she committed in the present life, and placing a cross on the chest and performing the ritual of offertory where visitors put gifts in the casket.
Next stage is the real ceremony itself in which the dead person is put into a coach and taken to the Church, where the priests and others recite prayers and hymns from the Bible. Then, the priest calls upon a dear friend or family member to give a eulogy or tribute to the departed’s life. Some of the communities follow this by a ritual of ringing of the bells, marking the end of the service. Then the casket with the dead person in it is brought to the burial site for the final set of rituals, known as the burial service which precedes the burying.
Finally, the funeral’s completion is marked by a lunch organised for the family and those present at the funeral service. The main purpose of such customs is to give support to the grieving family and help them tide over their grief and resign themselves to the fate.